Nottingham Forest's unusual recipe

From being a team that narrowly avoided relegation for several consecutive seasons, Nottingham Forest is now firmly establishing itself in the top five of the Premier League and is highly likely to represent England in the Champions League next year.

Nottingham Forest achieved great success with players who had barely joined the team - Photo: REUTERS

The success of this once-glorious European team didn't come too quickly. In 2017, Greek billionaire Evangelos Marinakis bought Nottingham Forest – which at the time was among the weakest teams in the English Championship.

Their glorious past is a thing of the past. Nottingham Forest once won the Champions League in the late 1970s, but when English football entered the Premier League era, they declined sharply and at times dropped as low as the second division.

The generosity and unconventional strategy of billionaire Marinakis – who possesses a fortune of approximately $3 billion – revived Nottingham Forest. Marinakis did indeed spend a lot of money on Nottingham Forest, but most of it went into the transfer market and through a unique method – loaning players. Nottingham Forest loaned around 7-8 players each year, which is quite understandable given their status as a lower-league team.

In the summer of 2022, Nottingham Forest officially returned to the Premier League after 23 years. That also marked the end of their loan policy, having sent back a total of 15 players that year, along with several others who left on free transfers. They had to compensate for the losses. Nottingham Forest brought in... 22 new players in the summer of 2022, with 19 of them being permanent signings.

The policy changed, but the craziness remained the same. A team completely revamped like that is truly rare in the Premier League.

Many experts pointed out Nottingham Forest's problems, but luck and hard work helped them miraculously avoid relegation in their return to the league. In the summer of 2023, Nottingham Forest avoided relegation with just 4 points more than the bottom three. A year later, the story was similar, with them only 6 points above the relegation zone.

If buying many wasn't enough, billionaire Marinakis decided to... buy even more. Every year, Nottingham Forest shakes up the transfer market with more than 10 signings. But perhaps the turning point was when they appointed manager Nuno Espirinto Santo. The Portuguese strategist has managed two Premier League teams and is a prime example of "the quintessential English football."

Santo seems best suited to mid-table clubs like Wolverhampton and now Nottingham Forest – where he can easily implement his tight defensive football and quick counter-attacks. However, whenever he's been to big clubs, Santo has consistently clashed with the superstars. From Tottenham to Al-Hilal (the team that owns Benzema), Santo hasn't been well-liked.

Nottingham Forest brought Santo back into the spotlight, a Portuguese strategist with some similarities to Jose Mourinho. Santo, in turn, restored Nottingham Forest to its former status as a top English team, using the unconventional formula of billionaire Marinakis.

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HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/cong-thuc-ky-la-cua-nottingham-forest-20250317090750947.htm